A Strange Greeting, a True Feeling Last week I was invited to a doctor’s meeting at the Ruth hospital for incurables. In  one  of the wards a patient, an old man, got up shakily from his bed and moved towards me. I could see that he hadn't long to  1  , but he came up to me and placed his right foot close mine on the floor.

“Frank!” I cried in astonishment. He couldn’t  2 , as I knew, but all the time  3  his foot against mine.

My  4  raced back more than thirty years to the  5  days of 1941, when I was a student in London. The  6  was an air-raid shelter, in which I and about hundred other people slept every night. Two of the regulars were Mrs. West and her son Frank.

7  wartime problems, we shelter-dwellers got to  8  each other very well. Frank West  9  me because he wasn’t  10  , not even at birth. His mother told me he was 37 then, but he had  11   of a mind than a baby has. His “12” consisted of rough sounds——sounds of pleasure or anger and  13  more. Mrs. West, then about 75, was a strong, capable woman, as she had to be, of course, because Frank  14  on her entirely. He needed all the  15  of a baby.

One night a policeman came and told Mrs. West that her house had been flattened by a 500-pounder. She  16  nearly everything she owned.

When that sort of thing happened, the rest of us helped the  17  ones. So before we  18  that morning, I stood beside Frank and  19  my right foot against his. They were about the same size. That night, then, I took a pair of shoes to the shelter for frank. But as soon as he saw me he came running and placed his right foot against mine. After that, his  20  to me was always the same.

1. A. work    B. stay

C. live   D. expect

2. A. answer  B. speak

C. smile     D. laugh

3. A. covering  B. moving

C. fighting    D. pressing

4. A. minds    B. memories

C. thoughts    D. brains

5. A. better   B. dark

C. younger      D. old

6. A. cave      B. place

C. sight      D. scene

7. A. Discussing     B. Solving

C. Sharing      D. Suffering

8. A. learn from    B. talk to

C. help       D. know

9. A. needed     B. recognized

C. interested     D. encouraged

10. A. normal     B. common

C. unusual    D. quick

11. A. more      B. worse

C. fewer      D. less

12. A. word      B. speech

C. sentence     D. language

13. A. not      B. no

C. something    D. nothing

14. A. fed      B. kept

C. lived      D. depended

15. A. attention     B. control

C. treatment     D. management

16. A. lost      B. needed

C. destroyed     D. left

17. A. troublesome    B. unlucky

C. angry      D. unpopular

18. A. separated    B. went

C. reunited     D. returned

19. A. pushed    B. tried

C. showed     D. measured

20.A. nodding      B. greeting

C. meeting      D. acting

答案与简析

1. C  上文的“incurables"表明这位老人是不治之症患者，当然存活的时间不会太长。

2. A

3. D  由11空白上下文暗示可知，将37岁的Frank与一个婴儿的智力进行比较，说明Frank的智力肯定不正常。因先天性智力低下，他不能用语言回答别人的问话，但内心有一定的反应，因此一见到我便将右脚靠着我的右脚以示问候，第一节最后一句和最后一小节的上下文暗示也能说明这一点。

4. B  Frank的这一举动使我的记忆一下子回到了30年前。

5. B  下文交待30年前作者的生活，当时他只能住在防空洞中，生活一定很苦，这样的岁月当然是黑暗的岁月。

6. D  作者回忆30年前的生活，头脑中出现了防空洞的情景。

7. C

8. D  在战争问题上由于拥有共同的话题，我们这些防空洞居住者逐渐了解了对方。

9. C

10. A  一个37岁的人智力却不正常，这一现象逐渐吸引了我的注意。

11. D  尽管Frank已经37岁，但智力还不如一个婴儿。

12. B

13. B  他的讲话仅体现了内心的快乐和愤怒，没有更多实在的内容。

14. D

15. A  West夫人不得不强壮而又有能力，因为Frank完全依靠于她，他需要婴儿似的全部照料。

16. A  她几乎失去了一切。

17. B  West夫人遭受这么大的损失，我们只好尽力帮助这不幸的一家人。

18. A    19. D

20. B  那天早上临走前，我站在Frank身边，将我的右脚靠着Frank 的右脚以便量出他脚的大小，目的是为他买一双鞋子，哪知Frank将我的这一动作看成是问候的表现，从此他就用这一动作来问候我，这就有了本文开头的那种情景。